Peter, I don't know if you realized this or not, but you made an interesting point. Maybe Americans do, partially, owe an apology to China for the crappy air there.

Isn't is possible that rampant consumerism is responsible for the outsourcing of labour to cheap places like China? Isn't it possible that the major American corporations that use countries like China do so because they won't have to care about polluting the air there or worry about paying proper minimum wage? They wouldn't get away with it in America, but since they aren't in America, they don't have to worry about it.

Think about it. In the head of a president/CEO of a major corporation, he's got in mind that the majority of Americans won't care that this is happening, because it's not happening to them. I'm not saying the Chinese government isn't at fault for allowing this to happen, I'm just saying that, maybe, Americans are partially responsible.